Advances in computing hardware will advance
the intelligence of tasks powered by search. “If
we accept the possibility that by using search we
can achieve human level performance on some
tasks, one of the great ways to boost search
performance is with massive parallelism,” says
Kuffner.

With the advent and advances in multicore

Humanoid reaching and grasping using perception.

12 SERVO 02.2010

processors, more processing can be done in
parallel. This will allow computers to search
through many possible choices for the robot —
whether steps or gestures or other movements —
in less time.

Up Close and Personal

Humanoid robots are being groomed for
intimate service in society. Topping the list of the
most promising applications are assistive health
care applications such as lifting and carrying the
bed-ridden or helping patients to exercise properly
and regain lost motor control, comments Stefan
Schaal, associate professor, Computer Science and
Neuroscience, USC.

Schaal believes these types of robots will be
commercially available in 10 to 20 years. The idea
is that you would simply turn the robot on and it
would mimic human behavior related to physical
therapy.

There is a significant amount of research
going into using humanoid robots to help educate
autistic children. “Having a really [humanly]
physically embodied robot is very appealing to
these children,” says Schaal.

To make humanoids behave acceptably in
society with appealing behaviors and gestures,
researchers in media labs are using behaviors that
make people appealing. There are stereotypic
behaviors that people exude that all people take in
certain ways, according to Schaal. “It is very easy
to exhibit a bad gesture that repels people,”
Schaal says.

Conclusion

Intelligence that computers possess today can
be leveraged to form the AI that robots will have
tomorrow. By applying the skills that computers
are good at now — such as searches to select the
best behavior choices for a given task —
researchers will develop an increasing storehouse
of repeatable, intelligent human behaviors that will
be useful in society. SV

Resources

1) Video about Kuffner’s work
on ASIMO on You Tube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dv0wJDwtuw